Posts Tagged ‘permalinks’

So, you’ve just switched from the default WordPress permalink structure and now your permalinks are returning Not Found (404) errors, or you didn’t do anything at all and they’re return the error. First, there could have been a momentary glitch, so try re-saving your permalink structure at Settings/Permalinks in your admin panel. If WordPress cannot automatically edit the .htaccess file, it will provide manual instructions after saving. If that doesn’t work, contact your hosting provider and find out if mod_rewite is installed and active on your server. If it isn’t, refer to this guide for some tips on using permalinks without mod_rewrite, or find yourself a nice Apache-based server with mod_rewrite. Permalinks are a finicky thing. They’ll either work right away, if you re-save, and if you use a work-around, otherwise they just won’t work at all. If you’re still having trouble, contact the WordPress Support Forums for more assistance.

I recently wrote an article that explained how to configure permalinks in WordPress. In that article, I go over a few different reasons why you would want to use pretty permalinks instead of using the default linking structure. Well, Ted Clayton published an article that took the other side of the permalinks argument. Ted goes into detail on why and how WordPress uses the default linking structure and explains that it’s not as bad as some would make you think. It’s an excellent read and I thank Ted for bringing up the other side of the equation. There is, in truth, a maze of trade-offs & counterpoints involved in selecting a strategy & tactics for making nicer, people-friendly URLs, for each & every website. Yes, many typical blog-sites will be able to adopt typical, easily-identified Permalink configurations. In the end, though, only you can do it right for your site. […]

Quite often, we hear of the terms (permalinks or pretty permalinks) which can also be called SEO-friendly URLs. These URLs are not only SEO friendly, but I believe they are human friendly as well. By default, WordPress uses URLs that look like a mishmash of letters and numbers with a few question marks mixed in for good measure. These types of links are frowned upon by search engine spiders and as a human being, they are also hard to read. Fortunately, WordPress provides a way for us to change this linking structure to something understandable. WordPress calls these Permalinks. Permalink settings can be configured a number of different ways. One of the ways to quickly configure permalinks is by choosing one of the Common Options. These common options include: Default – http://www.domain.com/?p=123 Date and name based – http://www.domain.com/2008/01/15/sample-post/ Numeric – http://www.domain.com/archives/123 There is no sense in using the default option […]

About the Author

James

James began using WordPress in 2004. Being new to WordPress (and blogging in general), he quickly found the WordPress Support Forums and basically never left. James currently resides in sunny Southern California, where he enjoys bringing happiness to millions of WordPress.com users.